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Tuesday, March 3, 2015

We're pleased to featured best-selling author of the Savvy Series and humorist, Dan Alatorre, from Florida. Dan's blog platform is the free version of Wordpress, a fine choice for any author: https://savvystories.wordpress.com/.

Dan, how did you decide on the domain name?

Originally, I thought I’d do what Steven Spielberg and other
people do, make their first book or movie the name of their production company.
So at first I had the book Savvy Stories and not much else; later I thought I’d
probably publish under Savvy Stories Books or something, and use it that way so
it still tied in.

How long have you had it and how often do you post?

I have probably had the blog for 1 ½ years now, maybe a
little less. I posted weekly or more often at first, until I realized after a
year that nobody was reading it. Then I cut way back. Now I am more balanced. I
do Twitter daily to feed the blog and as an overall fun presence, Facebook
daily for other things as a presence, and blog at least weekly but in a focused
direction of helpful writer tips and little snippets of the books.

What do you like the most or least about your blog?

Wordpress is MUCH less intuitive than almost any other
social media I use. Facebook is almost child’s play; Wordpress isn’t. I call it
clunky. I feel at home with it now, but it’s still not as easy to get stats and
see what’s happening as Twitter or almost anything else, which is inexcusable
these days. The description I’d use is that FB and Twitter are easy for
noncomputer types; Wordpress seems like it was written by code engineers who
don’t know what people want. And honestly, if you have Facebook, do you even
need a blog? FB can be both. If certain people I respect HIGHLY (my wife, you)
hadn’t told me to have a blog, I probably wouldn’t. FB was my blog.

What have you learned that you can share with a newbie?

Ooh. Tons. Because of Jason Matthews’ courses, which I
recommend to everyone, and other things, I have helped Allison Maruska get her
first book published, I’m helping a published young author develop a platform
to market, I’m helping another author get her first book finished and
published, and I’m willing to help almost anyone avoid the horrid mistakes I
made from not knowing where to go and what to do. I recommend critique groups,
editors, book cover designers, your FB group and on and on. I read and review
books for new authors and work with them in critique groups to show them they
have talent.

Because of what I’ve learned and my experience as a Fortune
500 company sales manager, I’m compiling an eBook sales marketing book series
that should be ready soon, and which would make for a GREAT Udemy course if
you’re interested in helping with that. I’d take you as a partner in a
heartbeat, Jason! Think about it.

Okay, sounds good. What's the best link for readers to find your books?

Jason, your FB group and your Udemy course helped me a TON,
I think you know that, so I recommend them both to everybody. Then I try my
best to help each new author who asks or needs it, because as corny as it
sounds, it feels good to help others.

Not corny at all. Dan, you're a great ambassador for the indie author crowd. I hope to meet more authors like you on this experience.